1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a collapsible container made of a flexible sheet material. More specifically, my invention relates to my Re-usable Compact Self-Containable Collapsible Container uniquely sized for maximizing the storage capacity of a standard push-type shopping cart structure. Also, my collapsible container can be preferably constructed from a unitary blank, which blank comprises an economical flexible sheet material such as cardboard or corrugated cardboard. My container is useable for carrying groceries, packaged articles, goods or the like alone and in combination with a standard push-type shopping cart. In an expanded position, my container maximizes the storage capacity of the collapsible container while simultaneously providing container walls of sufficient rigidity to both maintain the container in an expanded condition as well as enable a second three collapsible containers in the expanded condition to be stacked on top of a first three expanded collapsible containers. Further, preparatory to using the container to carry groceries or after it has been used to carry groceries, the container can be easily and compactly stored in a flat collapsed condition enabling several collapsed containers to be stacked next to each other in a stable vertical or horizontal relationship.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A multitude of collapsible container structures are known in the art, however such structures are costly, inconvenient and inefficient for use as a grocery carrying container alone or in combination with a standard push-type shopping cart. With businesses becoming more cost conscious and unwilling to provide the simple conveniences that they used to at no additional cost to the customer, the customer is left to fend for him or her self. In particular, today many grocery stores or the like do not provide carrying containers to their customers free of charge. If they do provide containers, the containers are often a flimsy type of bag. These bags are very inconvenient and unreliable for transporting such items as small canned goods combined with large juice containers combined with frozen goods, which during the summer months sweat and weaken a paper bag to the breaking point, combined with other heavy or bulky goods. Additionally, containers other than bags, if provided by grocery stores, whether for a cost or free of charge, are often bulky or too large to be manageable for one person and they do not maximize the storage capacity of the carrying container while also maximizing the storage capacity of the shopping cart.
Thus, if a customer desires to carry their groceries out of the store in some kind of reliable container a grocery store customer must bring their own carrying containers into the grocery store or at least in their vehicle with them to the store. Based on my experience, the most convenient and time saving way to go grocery shopping is to bring the desired number of compact self-containable collapsible containers needed into the grocery store where they can be carried in a shopping cart while one shops. Then, once one has purchased goods, the collapsible containers are readily available and can be used to quickly and easily filled with the purchased groceries. Now, the filled collapsible containers in the shopping cart can be easily wheeled to a waiting vehicle and the filled collapsible containers are quickly and easily loaded into the vehicle. Moreover, my collapsible container is preferably sized for a fitted relationship inside the shopping cart to simultaneously: (i) maximize the storage capacity of the shopping cart, (ii) utilizing the fewest number of collapsible containers, while also (iii) providing a collapsible container of sufficient size to carry a good number of grocery items yet not being too big and bulky that one person could not carry the filled container. Finally, once one arrives home, the groceries are still in the filled collapsible containers and now the collapsible containers can be easily transported by one person, one at a time, into the house or wherever desired.
As a result of the convenience requirement that one must bring the collapsible containers into the grocery store with them, the containers must be self-contained and compactly storable in the shopping cart without taking up much of the valuable shopping cart space that is needed for groceries. The unique configuration and features of my collapsible container described and claimed herein meet these requirements, including without limitation providing not only hinge lines or foldably joined parts but also double-jointed hinges for foldability of said parts. For example, in one such shopping cart that I have experimented with, three collapsed containers in the collapsed position occupy less than 5% of the overall top cart space and can even be placed on a bottom rack of the cart, if desired, where they will not take up any of the top cart space. Also, since my collapsible container is intended to be re-usable, though concededly not forever in order to keep material and construction costs reasonable, the compact and self-containable collapsible features further the end of providing a collapsible container for compactly storing several collapsible containers when they are not in use in either a vertical or a horizontal stored position.
Additionally, my collapsible container can be constructed from a unitary blank of sheet material which provides a number of advantages over the prior art. One such advantage is an economical construction easy to assemble and having enhanced durability due to the unitary construction as well as my unique non-interlocking double layered base. The non-interlocking base of double layer construction where pairs of opposed end flaps and side flaps fold in towards each other, one on top of the other with each pair substantially spanning the perimeter of the base, provided a double layered durable construction without compromising the unique collapsibility features of my invention.
These and other types of collapsible container features are not disclosed in the prior art to provide the flexibility and inventive features of my Re-usable Compact Self-Containable Collapsible Container. As will be described in greater detail hereinafter, the features and combination of features of the present invention differ from those previously proposed.